The preparation of a hot drink on Shabbat should be done with due attention to ensure that it is done in a permitted manner, without violating the prohibited labor of cooking. Here too, there are disagreements between Sephardic and Ashkenazic authorities, and there are different opinions among Ashkenazic authorities themselves.

With regard to instant coffee or hot chocolate prepared from powdered chocolate mix on Shabbat, Sephardim permit one to prepare these drinks in the usual manner. In other words, one may put coffee and sugar or powdered chocolate mix in a cup and pour hot water on them from the urn, despite the fact that this water comes from a primary vessel.

Ashkenazim require that the water come from a secondary vessel. According to this opinion, the order of inserting the coffee or powdered chocolate mix must be done as follows: First one fills the cup with water from the urn, which means that the water in that cup has the status of a secondary vessel. Only then may one put the coffee and sugar or powdered chocolate mix into the water. Alternatively, one may pour the water from the secondary vessel onto coffee and sugar or powdered chocolate mix that are in another cup.

In contrast to the items mentioned above, which have already been cooked in their processing, ground coffee, Turkish coffee, and cocoa powder have been roasted during processing but they have not been cooked, which therefore gives them a different status than instant coffee. Many Sephardic authorities nonetheless permit one to pour water directly from the urn onto the coffee or cocoa, but it is best not to do so. Rather, one should first fill the cup with hot water and only then add the coffee or cocoa powder. Ashkenazim should first fill an empty cup with hot water (a secondary vessel), and then pour it from there onto the coffee or cocoa powder.

One may prepare tea on Shabbat in two ways: by means of tea essence (strong, concentrated tea that one prepares before Shabbat) or with a tea bag. When using tea essence, the best method is to leave it over Shabbat on a heat source, such as on top of the urn, so that when preparing the tea, the essence will already be hot.

When preparing tea from tea essence, it is recommended to do so in the following manner: One should place a little essence into an empty cup, take another cup and fill it with water from the urn, and then pour the hot water from this cup into the cup with the essence. One should follow a similar procedure when using a tea bag: Place the bag and the sugar in a separate cup and pour water over it from a cup that was filled from the urn, so that the tea and the sugar will be mixed with the hot water only in a tertiary vessel.

If one wants to place a slice of lemon in the cup of tea, he must be careful not to cook the lemon. Accordingly, one must put the lemon slice into a tertiary vessel and pour hot water over it from a secondary vessel. Some rule stringently, that one may not place a slice of lemon in a hot cup of tea on Shabbat at all.